I am trying to decide whether to repair the upstairs in my house or just close it off. The house was built in 1935 and from the height of the ceilings upstairs the previous owners just took in the attic to make 2 bedrooms. Maybe 6.5 ft tall ceiling at the center point sloping down to about 3.5 ft. My house was damaged big time from hurricane Ike and I have been working on it slow but steady. I have read that you don't want to change too much in a house this old because of it needing to breathe and historical significance, etc. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Look on your county records. It will have when it was built, number of bedrooms, square footage of house, garage or outbuildings, etc. Unless the bedrooms upstairs have egress (escape), sufficient light and heat, room size and headroom per code, they may not be listed as such. The savvy buyer will check here, to see if the work was permitted or not. Reduce or increase the house cost.

Ask your local Building Department about upgrading to codes or not. Sloped ceilings- min. 50% at 7' or greater ceiling and areas under 5' high do not count towards required min. floor area. 70 square foot min. with 7' measurement one way.

Unfortunately I can't post pics. I am using my work computer. I the lost majority of my shingles on the roof of the house from the Hurricane. The decking on the house is tongue and groove 1 x 10. I had rain come thru the roof from the attic down to the first floor on 3 seperate occasions before I could get the roof replaced, it took almost 3 months to get that done ( because everyone around here needed roofs!). I was really excited about that! A roof instead of blue tarp !! Since everything upstairs got wet, all the sheetrock,carpet, and insulation will have to be replaced upstairs.Everything got VERY wet.I will check into the county records and see what kind of information they can give me as to when it was built etc. I appreciate your helpful info. Thanks